Hiring: Copy-editor @ Yonhap News
Yonhap News Agency is looking to hire a full-time copy-editor for its English news department. Time is of the essence (we need someone right away), so I’ll break down everything about the job below.
You must be a native English speaker or close to native, and have at least a four-year Bachelor’s degree – preferably in journalism or something equivalent to journalism (i.e. communications, broadcasting, and so on. English or Linguistics degrees do not count.). Also, you must have journalism/media experience. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a lot, but you do need to know news writing, AP Style, and news editing. This is not just checking for grammar and spelling mistakes. We can’t really spend a lot of time training the new person, so we really need someone who can hit the ground running. Not to mention, even with the eased E7 visa regulations, you still need to have some sort of journalism experience in order to qualify for the visa.
In regards to experience, all I will say is, the more you have, the better.
I don’t know specifics on the salary for this position, but in my experience, I believe that it is experience-level based and not one set salary for all. Granted that can always change. It comes with the usual full-time perks – health insurance, pension, paid vacation (more than 10 days), one sick day, leave for death in the family, etc. Also, as per usual with most non-teaching jobs, there is no key money, housing or housing allowance provided. You need to have your own housing covered. And that is non-negotiable.
The job itself is editing articles on general news, finance and economic news, plus photo captions. No writing or reporting. As my journalism prof used to say, a good copy-editor needs to know a little bit about everything. You need to be familiar with Korean current events, politics, financial and economic terms, and so on, since part of the job is a bit of fact-checking. You do not need to be an expert, by any means, but the more you know, the easier it is to edit and the faster you can edit.
Yonhap is a news wire, meaning there are no set deadlines, making it much more hectic than a newspaper or magazine. As soon as an article goes up on the system for editing, it needs to be edited and sent within about 10 minutes (at the most). There are exceptions, of course, such as if an article really does need a lot of editing, or if it’s a feature or set to go out later at a set time. But for the most part, you will need to be able to edit quickly and thoroughly.
We also edit a monthly North Korea magazine, but it can easily fit into normal working hours, and you are compensated for it. The job requires working every weekend (either Saturday or Sunday) but, again, you are compensated for it and you are allowed to take a day off during the week. We rotate on holidays so that everyone can have some holiday time off. And we do get compensated for working on holidays, too. Vacation time is first come, first serve, but we usually try to work together so that everyone can go on vacation when they need/want to. I don’t think we’ve ever had any timing conflicts. (Just so people know, one of the editors has already put in for vacation at the end of November.)
A usual workday during the week is 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., with an hour and a half lunch break, but you may sometimes work night shift which is 3-11 p.m. If someone does not specifically need to work late shift, we usually rotate on a monthly basis. We settle the schedule among ourselves, so it’s pretty easy to move things around if you need to take a day off or work a certain shift. As long as it doesn’t fall during a busy time or someone else needs time off at the same time. Weekend and holiday shifts are either 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. or 4-11 p.m.
The job does come with a sponsored visa (E7 visa), however, we really need someone who can start right away or sooner rather than later. My co-worker’s last day is this Saturday (Oct. 17) and until the new person starts, the three remaining copy-editors cannot take any vacation time or days off, and will be working double shifts on the weekend (13-14 days in a row every 2 weeks) to cover for that open spot. So be sure to include when you can start in your cover letter and what visa you have.
The deadline for resumes is Oct. 20, but may be pushed back if we haven’t received many. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. You can send me your resume and cover letters at [email protected] and I will forward it to my boss.
Also, because this usually happens when I post about jobs (and I’ve already gotten a lot of these questions on Facebook), here is an FAQ.
- Yes, Yonhap does put out news in Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, Spanish and French, but they do not hire editors for those languages – only translators. I don’t know how you can get a job as a translator for those languages. We’re the same overall department (foreign languages), but they have their own manager who does their hiring that is separate from the English department.
- No, you will not be writing. If you hope to become a reporter here, then you will need to be fluent in Korean and take the reporter test next time they do another hiring cycle. Right now they are only looking for an English copy-editor.
- I don’t know anything about internships, but I’m pretty sure we are not looking for interns right now either.
- No, you do not have to speak Korean for the job. But you may have an edge if you can.
- Working on the weekend is non-negotiable. If you can’t do it (or don’t want to do it), don’t apply. Because every time someone takes a weekend off, they force someone else to cover two 7-hour shifts. For obvious reasons, we don’t like doing this often.
- No, we don’t have any part-time openings. Just this one, full-time position.
- Yonhap is located in Gwanghwamun in the middle of Jonggak (line 1), Anguk (line 3) and Gwanghwanmun (line 5) stations. It’s across the street from the Japanese Embassy. And it’s about a 7-10 minute walk from Cheonggyecheon, a five-minute walk from Insadong, and a 15-20 minute walk from Euljiro-1-ga station (line 2). It takes me about 20-30 minutes to walk to the back side of Myeongdong (near Young Plaza and the big H&M) from the office as well.
